Honoring Heroes with Daniel Kiger and Verum Legend

[00:00:02] The core values in the military, regardless of what branch you're in, are invaluable to me as a professional, but especially as an entrepreneur. Things like loyalty, duty, respect, honor, integrity, self-sacrifice, personal courage, to name a few leadership. I think

[00:00:24] I just went down the army values, right? It's about leadership. Not stopping until the job's done. Welcome to the En Factor, Conversations with Entrepreneurs Who Started, Stumbled and Succeeded. I'm Rebecca White and I'm very excited today to have Dan Kiger with me. Dan is one of my students

[00:00:52] at the University of Tampa soon to graduate. He's former military and he has started a very interesting company called Verum Legend. So Dan, thank you for joining me today and really excited

[00:01:07] to have you on the show. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for the invite. I really appreciate it and I really, really look forward to talking about my venture. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us a little bit

[00:01:21] about Verum Legend and what does that mean? It's a Latin word, right? Verum means true. I think you said? Correct. Correct. So the origins of the company, like you said, I'm a military

[00:01:36] veteran. I was in the army. I had my fun in Iraq and Afghanistan like so many others. And when things started winding down in Iraq and particularly Afghanistan, many things came to the surface, I guess you could say, of certain decisions by leadership that

[00:01:59] weren't very good, particularly the withdrawal, the method, the manner in which we withdrew from Afghanistan. And having been there a few times and knowing all the blood, sweat and peers and people who died serving in that conflict, in all conflicts in general, this really hit home with

[00:02:21] me. And I thought, well, what would be a great way to take my frustrations and emotions and turn it to something positive to a company, an apparel company that honors those who died in service for others? Right? So that's the genesis. There are many of, many apparel

[00:02:43] companies that are patriotic, that have patriotic themes, but we set ourselves apart by honoring individual veterans. Right? Much like you see the metal bracelets that have the name when someone was born, when they died in service, their branch, their rank, et cetera. Well, we take the

[00:03:08] same thing, but put it on a shirt with name, rank, decorations, the unit they were part of, the rank they have when they perished. So that's a snapshot of what we do.

[00:03:21] Wow. I think that's such a great story. And of course, I learned about your company and your concept in the classes that I taught at the university. And you know, it's interesting,

[00:03:36] you said you had your fun in Afghanistan. I'm not sure I've ever heard it described as fun, but I know it was a learning experience for sure, serving in the military. And that's great that

[00:03:50] you've been able to turn your frustration with some of the things that have happened, and especially the senseless deaths of people into something meaningful. So I'm really, really impressed with what you're doing. So tell me a little bit about, you know,

[00:04:14] let's go back a little bit because I always love to kind of find out. I know you spend time in the military, but I also know that you're a fellow West Virginia. I grew up in

[00:04:24] West Virginia also. So talk to us a little bit about your background, where are you from, and sort of bring us up to date. And maybe even more importantly for this podcast, did you have role models who are entrepreneurs or are you kind of a first generation entrepreneur

[00:04:45] in your family and among your tribe, so to speak? Yeah, well no, that's great. True, but so yes, right when I knew you're from West Virginia, I knew we would have instant rapport without question. I knew that. Yeah, I grew up in a small town outside of Charleston,

[00:05:04] West Virginia, a little town called St. Albans. They're all small in West Virginia, right? Yeah, exactly. That's redundant, a small town in West Virginia. So yeah, I grew up there, spent my whole childhood in West Virginia, same town, same neighborhood, same house, didn't move

[00:05:27] around. I kind of had an ideal upbringing. Didn't have to lock our doors growing up. I could walk into friends' houses unannounced, had a ton of friends where I grew up. I grew up playing

[00:05:41] sports. I grew up in a family where service and faith was very important, as I'm sure you can understand. Growing up in West Virginia, that's something people rely on a lot, service to others

[00:05:54] and community and faith. So it was a natural thing for me to be pulled towards service and putting others and other things above myself. So I continued on in school with sports and that found myself in college in a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania called St. Vincent College.

[00:06:20] I initially went there to play soccer. I hurt my foot. I did not, but I continued on with school there. I studied abroad overseas. I played a little bit of soccer in South America

[00:06:37] while I was there. That opened my perspective of the world. I think you only learn more when you open yourself up to different situations. So that really, I guess you could say that really kind of chartered my path into being in different cultures, different countries,

[00:07:05] throwing myself into that world. So I remember I was living in Italy when 9-11 happened. I just arrived in Rome, Italy. I was studying there my junior year for college, junior year abroad,

[00:07:21] and I want to say within a week or two from arriving, 9-11 happened. And at the time I had a brother, an older brother who was in the military serving in the Marine Corps.

[00:07:32] And that was a very uncertain time if you remember for the world, not just Americans. And being a young 20-year-old I wanted to serve my country and I was like, wow, we were attacked.

[00:07:46] So I want to get these people who attacked us. It was a pretty simple thought process, right? I'm young. I'm a male. I'm supposed to serve. People in my family had served.

[00:07:57] I heard all the stories from my father who was in Vietnam. He had uncles in World War II. I want to say he had a great uncle in World War I. So service was normal and natural kind of

[00:08:09] progression for me. At the time I didn't think I would ever join the military before them because I was sort of a free spirit and I had a chance to go to the Naval Academy for soccer, but I

[00:08:22] realized, you know, the 17-year-old Dan realized, wait a second, when I'm done at the Naval Academy, I've just been five years in the Navy. That's way too long. That's insane. So what did I do?

[00:08:35] I finished normal college, right? And then I enlisted in the Army for five years. So that is kind of how I found myself and my first formative professional experience in life going into the military because of 9-11. I wanted to help, right? Help in the effort to

[00:08:58] go after the people who killed a lot of innocent people on that day. Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for your service. You're welcome. Yeah. And I think it's really interesting in that story as somebody who also grew up in

[00:09:14] West Virginia and also did a study abroad, it really changed my perspective. And it was it's something I recommended to my children. And you know, as we both know growing up in small rural

[00:09:30] towns, you know, there's always this, I think there's always this kind of idea that there's something bigger out there to find and explore. So I understand your path. As far as making this decision to be an entrepreneur, now you spent a number of years in the military

[00:09:52] and now you're working, you know, are you working in an industry related to you're doing, you're doing your business as a side hustle, right? And you're working. Correct. Yeah. Correct. I'm doing that as a side hustle on your project management is my,

[00:10:09] it's my full time job. But like with all entrepreneurs, you know, you want your side hustle to become your full time hustle, right? To be, to be where you throw all your chips. So I'm working towards that.

[00:10:21] Yeah. And you know, talking with a lot of entrepreneurs, and I think you may have heard some of the podcasts that I've done in the past, but I'm seeing a lot of people

[00:10:32] go that route of a side hustle. And it makes a lot of sense, you know, and especially as a way to survive financially and to test your product and to test your market. So you made the decision

[00:10:47] to go through a graduate program. And so I'm curious, did the graduate program prompt this concept or was the concept what drove you to the graduate program? Well, that's a great question. Without even knowing it really, I've had an entrepreneurial

[00:11:09] spirit in the back of my head. Like from the time I was little, I liked creating things. I was, I was always into, I got, I was into like sports cards. So I always wanted to trade and come up

[00:11:21] with negotiations and deals for better sports memorabilia and trying to bargain. So I always had that combined with creativity. And I didn't really put two and two together that there are many similar like I had many of the traits of an entrepreneur growing up.

[00:11:42] And as I was younger, but I didn't really have tangible or close proximity examples, maybe in my family or close friends who were entrepreneurs. Maybe it's a couple, but it took me some time, right? As you grow up and learn stumble, get up, walk, crawl, fall down.

[00:12:02] And you're like, well, you know, if I want to do this, these are the steps I have to take. And I firmly believe in following a path of meaning, right? And after during and after

[00:12:17] the military, I fought, fought to myself, well, you know, you don't know what tomorrow brings, right? So you have to get on the horse and see what happens, right? If you want to do something,

[00:12:30] do it. And it's hard to get knocked off the ladder if you don't even take the first step on the ladder. And from, you know, the program, I saw the program, one, the military is helping

[00:12:42] me pay for the program, right? Through benefits earned from service. So that's a no-brainer, right? Free or near free education is a no-brainer. But also, I, you know, I looked across the landscape of opportunities and education while I still had to maintain that full-time job.

[00:13:02] And so this program is a wonderful way to have a repeatable process and get the scaffolding infrastructure, excuse me, of any business I want to create. And on top of that, have the

[00:13:20] network of people like yourself and people that the school brings in and just use that full force as much as I can to better, better refine my product, my processes, etc. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I was just having this conversation with one of the

[00:13:40] other faculty members yesterday, and there really is a repeatable process. You know, every, every entrepreneurial venture is different. But over the years, as I've coached, mentored, taught entrepreneurs, you know, it's even crystallized more for me how, how the problems are all the

[00:14:02] same. And the process can be applied regardless of your industry and what you're trying to accomplish. So I think it's really interesting and, and I'm, I'm pleased that you took that approach.

[00:14:15] I know you're nearing the end of your program. And I'm just, you know, I'm curious as you think about launching this product, what, what have been some of the, what have been some of

[00:14:27] the challenges and kind of where are you in this process? I know you and I are actually working on a product for me, for my husband and his father. And that's right. He can't hear this

[00:14:43] podcast, right? It's a surprise. But you know, it's he never listens to my podcast anyway. So but you know, what's the, how's this working for you? I mean, what's the, what's the, how's it, you know, what have been some of the opportunities and what have

[00:15:01] been some of the challenges that you've been running into? Well, I mean more honestly, more I've found in my life in general, how you frame problems and how you frame things is key. So you've said challenges and opportunities. And I try to look at the

[00:15:21] challenges and barriers I've had in growing this company as, as not so much this is a problem I have to solve. But but yeah, this is a problem I have to solve to get better. Not oh my God, I can't,

[00:15:39] why is this happening to me? Look at what's happening for me. Look at all these new ideas I'm able to come up with and all these new people I'm able to meet, for instance, through this program, through you, through other people to better guide me along the way.

[00:15:55] There have been so many times where, you know, I get, I've become very anxious to go one way and put the cart in front of the horse in various ways, but through counsel and listening to those

[00:16:10] who've done, who've already like you said, been through the stumbles have really tampered and given me a better path strategically to, to hit certain barriers or go through certain wickets before, before others, right? Like there was a point where I was really determined about

[00:16:33] social media, social media. Well then I was like, Hey, let's work on your actual product, right? Let's work on your product and talking to people before you worry about posting to social

[00:16:47] media every day. Social media is fine, but if I'm not doing things that are driving me to revenue and driving me to sales and driving my awareness, like that doesn't matter, right?

[00:17:01] Yeah, yeah, that's a, I think that's a really, really good point. And, you know, it's easy to jump into wanting to, you know, dive into marketing right away. But it is about ensuring that you're

[00:17:16] creating value for your customer. And in your case, you know, I, I know one of the challenges is how to, how do you scale a company like this? I love that you're telling the stories,

[00:17:29] sort of the untold stories, if you will. I love that. I think that's a very special mission. How do you build a business around that and scale that? So I'm a firm, but you know, this is a plan that's being built in flight. And I hope

[00:17:49] year months and years from now, I can, I can repeat this, what I'm going to say. My core value, my core belief in this venture and this effort is to tell human stories. Not necessarily sell t-shirts, t-shirts, apparel, that's the vehicle for the stories. So what I'm

[00:18:15] trying to do, because I know people care about stories, even if you say, you don't like movies, you don't like music, I don't believe it. Right? People, people do things, they're attracted to stories because whether we admit it or not, we want to hear about other

[00:18:35] people. We care about other people. When someone says, I like you, they're kind of saying also they're like me, right? So I strongly, strongly, strongly want this company to continue to be about the human stories of those who've given their lives for others, right? And their families.

[00:18:57] Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. And I think, you know, it's a very unique way to tell their stories because you're right. There are certainly movies, there are certainly songs, there's poems, there's books. There's a lot of ways that stories are portrayed. And I love

[00:19:19] that you're finding a unique and creative way to share those stories. And I know as you're talking to me now, you know, I see the emotion in what you're doing. And I think it's that passion

[00:19:32] and that emotion that can drive you through some of the bigger challenges that you have. I'm guessing that you have some very personal stories of people that you lost friends and perhaps even family members that are part of this.

[00:19:54] Yeah, I, you know, it's, it's a, it's bittersweet to do the research for this company, right? I take, for instance, when we withdrew from Afghanistan, we lost 12 to 13 American, young Americans average between the age of 19 to 30. So about 23 on average, right?

[00:20:23] And just reading their stories, reading their lives, reading and listening to the Memorial Services, actually talking to one of the fathers of one of the Marines lost, Jared Schmidt. It's a lot, it's a lot to take in, but I feel, I feel responsible that I have to

[00:20:53] because I could have been one of them easily, right? And not just them, but you know, there are a lot of veterans and first responders, excuse me, who, who have, who their family members have

[00:21:10] passed away as well, right? From past conflicts and go, you know, go to Arlington Memorial or any veterans cemetery. And you see a lot of people who gave their lives for others or spent a career in service to others, right? And their stories deserve to be

[00:21:34] retold because they deserve better. Their families deserve better than we do and their stories need to be retold for young people and society in general to have better role models of what right looks like when it comes to selfless service. You know, the world we're in now,

[00:21:56] attention is currency, right? Grabbing someone's attention is currency. We talked about social media. And regardless of how you grab someone's attention, you can garner fame. You can garner wealth. I think people need better examples of how, how to gain attention, right? By doing

[00:22:19] the right thing, by being moral, by serving others. Yeah. What, what a powerful message. And, and I absolutely agree. You know, I feel like there are a lot of people today that are especially

[00:22:32] young people, but a lot of people that are very unhappy. And I think that unhappiness stems from not understanding the importance of this, this service that you're talking about. There's a, for lack of a better word, you know, we become a very selfish, self-centered society.

[00:22:58] And, and, you know, there are still heroes around us. And that's what you're talking about, is telling those stories of those heroes. Absolutely. And I think, yeah, I think, I think they're,

[00:23:17] you know, there, there will be an opportunity for, you know, a business in this. And as you pointed out, it's more about a mission for you. And then it's about a purpose, a sense of purpose.

[00:23:30] And, you know, Dan, it's really interesting to me because I think in many ways, as hard as this is, it's also a gift because it gives you a sense of purpose where there are so many empty people

[00:23:45] walking around that don't have a sense of purpose. I fully agree, you know, regardless of what someone believes, I fully believe this with all my heart that you, you will not find happiness until you

[00:24:03] find out that whatever path you have, that you are living for something or someone else more important than you. Like having a purpose that's greater than you, right? Be it a family,

[00:24:16] be it a loved one, be it others in some way, shape or fashion. I think that's why we're here, right? Everybody has different God-given talents and gifts. And once you find those,

[00:24:28] you need to share those with other people. I think that is a major problem, like you said, where we are very selfishness gets promoted. But like fulfillment comes through service, I think, right? Service to others. And that's another reason why entrepreneurship is so cool because

[00:24:49] if you want to be a good entrepreneur, you should be serving the customer more than yourself. And if you do those things, you will garner the success, the profit, the revenue, right? So that's just enough, I think an extension of being a good person. It's another opportunity to

[00:25:08] serve others through goods and services. Yeah, I can. I'm blessed to be in this position because, like I said, not for lack of effort, I could have died many, many times. I'm not special

[00:25:27] compared to others. I served with people who did some amazing things, but you hit on the heroes or the ones who don't come back often, right? And I owe it to them. I think we all do.

[00:25:42] Yeah, and there are those that come back very damaged physically and or emotionally. And so life for them is very challenging. And we owe them all a lot because we do live in

[00:25:56] freedom. And as we record this, we're approaching the 4th of July. And it's a reminder that we are blessed to live in freedom and that we can't take that lightly because we could lose that anytime.

[00:26:19] Yeah, I fully agree. Fully agree many, many people laid out have laid down their lives, their fortunes, the blood, sweat and tears and continue to serve us and serve others when they swear that oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and

[00:26:41] domestic. That means something and which is apolitical by the way, like you don't get to pick the missions you go on when you're in the military and say, Hey, I didn't vote for that. That's nice.

[00:26:52] Shut up and we have a job to do right. So that's another point of not contention, but a very important point that you bring up that, you know, we forget you just, I know we're traveling, we forget how different other parts of the world are.

[00:27:13] And we are blissfully ignorant to some of the things we're able to do like this right here, freedom of speech that comes through other through fighting, right? That comes not in a bad way,

[00:27:27] but fighting for rights that happened a long ago. Yeah. And it's we're not that far removed from the people who've laid down their lives to give us this ability and the ability to have businesses and success and fail. Yeah, there are a lot. I mean, just property ownership,

[00:27:52] which is a requirement for entrepreneurship. You know, we are able to, I not too long ago went to Cuba and it was fascinating to see the entrepreneurial mindset there among people. It was a completely different environment instead of opportunities, but people found ways to be

[00:28:18] entrepreneurial, which were just fascinating. And I think that that creative entrepreneurial spirit is among us, but not everywhere in the world do we have that opportunity to practice it like we do here. So we're very blessed. I'm curious, Dan, you know, the military obviously was a big

[00:28:41] impact in your life. And we've had a number of military former military that we've had a number of veterans in our program. And I know a number of former military folks who are very successful

[00:28:57] entrepreneurs. So I'm curious about your thoughts. Did the military prepare you in any way for a career and entrepreneurship? Absolutely. You know, the core values in the military, regardless of what branch you're in, are invaluable to me as a professional, but especially as an entrepreneur, things like

[00:29:23] loyalty, duty, respect, honor, integrity, self sacrifice, personal courage, you know, to name a few leadership. I think I just went down the army values, right? It's about leadership, not stopping until the job's done, showing up early, staying late, going through continuing

[00:29:46] through pain, discomfort. All those things are, you know, maybe different degrees variations that I'm facing now in the entrepreneurial world versus when I was on active duty in deployed. But there's still a lot of low hanging fruit, comfortable wrong choices to make

[00:30:10] that I know, that I know when I'm not feeling like looking at my website development, or I feel this is too hard, right? A little bit of grit and determination or remembering what I'm going to

[00:30:28] keeps me keeps me going forward, right? So not quitting is a huge thing in the military. And as you know, it's easy to quit. It's easy to quit. But once you quit, it can become,

[00:30:42] it can metastasize, right? And become easy to do. So yes, the military culture and values are highly transferable and important to me as an entrepreneur. Yeah, you know, as you know, I've done a lot of work with entrepreneurial mindset. And one of the, one of the competencies

[00:31:05] of an entrepreneurial mindset is what I call executing past failure and resilience. And I think as you're talking about some of the things, you know, one of the things that has concerned me is as I've, as I've observed students over the past three decades or so

[00:31:25] that I've been teaching is that there's a, there seems to be increasingly a lack of resilience. And and I think what you're talking about there, that persistence and executing and pushing forward and not, you know, failure, not being an option quite honestly, is what you're,

[00:31:48] what you're referring to as one of the lessons that you learned in the military. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, the way I grew up with sports, but also in the military,

[00:32:00] as long as you don't quit, you don't fail, right? You take a knee, drink some water and assess the situation, but you don't quit. You learn from what is holding you back, you regroup and find another

[00:32:14] way to get to your target, you know, by with and through however you want to say it, however you have to get to your target, your mission, your goal, your successful business,

[00:32:27] you find a way. Yeah. Yeah. 100% you find a way. Yeah. I think it's interesting because I just interviewed somebody on the podcast and he was talking about the very same thing, a lot of

[00:32:37] different words that he was using, but it was manifesting what you want. And you know, it's all about starting with that vision and then, you know, the universe and your experiences and serendipity, whatever you want to call it. The path starts to open to you. But the other

[00:32:57] interesting thing I think about what you said is that very rarely does a business look like the original picture that the entrepreneur has in their mind. And that's, that's what you're talking about taking a knee, I think assessing the situation and then making changes.

[00:33:17] You talked earlier about creating value for the customer and even value for your employees along the way. And I think as long as you keep that, the problem you're trying to solve, your vision, your goal and creating value, you'll eventually find your way, I think, you

[00:33:37] know. That's the idea. Yeah. And I know you're very early still in the startup phase and it's kind of fun because I've gotten people that have sold their businesses, people that have been running

[00:33:52] companies for many years and then people that are just getting started. And I think it's really interesting and fascinating to have all of those different stories. And like you,

[00:34:03] I love the stories and that's why I do the podcast. And I want to, yeah, I want to stories of everybody, you know, not just the names that everybody knows, but the stories of the, especially

[00:34:16] sort of the surprising successful entrepreneurs that nobody really knows about, but they're doing very brave amazing things and changing the world in their own way. So I want to talk a little bit about your particular business. If somebody were listening today and they had

[00:34:38] a story they wanted to tell through your product, what would they do? How did they go about making this happen and working with you on a project like this?

[00:34:52] So well, there's a few ways. I my through my website, veram legend.com you can reach out and get on the an email newsletter and there's also a social media Instagram link, which the handle is at

[00:35:13] veram legend. And I also have a company email, which is veram legend at proton mail.com. Those are the easiest ways to get old or they can reach out to you and you can

[00:35:27] and you can line me up with them. But I am I am anxious and eager to talk with anybody who knows of a veteran or even a first responder close to them who has a story that needs to be told,

[00:35:44] right? Being a grandfather who died in World War II and uncle in Vietnam, God forbid a son or daughter in the global war on terror. A doctor, firefighter, a policeman. I want to hear these

[00:35:58] stories and honor their family member their loved one so the world can know about them. And so what does somebody need to have in order for this to happen? I mean, what what what what kind

[00:36:12] of information do you need and how do you help help them with that information? Great question. So if they're someone who was if they want to honor someone who is in the military, that that person's military record will be crucial, right? Pictures are great.

[00:36:34] Letters, emails, photos in uniform are wonderful, but everything to substantiate their military or you know if it's a first responder police firefighter record everything they can get to paint a picture of that person's actual service to accurately portray the the

[00:36:58] the apparel but also when we include eventually captions, interviews, narratives of the individual, we want it to be accurate and fitting to honor them because words are great pictures are great and if we can get words, pictures, video all matching, matching excuse me even better, right?

[00:37:23] Yeah so so if somebody reaches out to you you can guide them through that process of what you need and help help them 100. Yeah yeah happy happy to do so yes 100. So talk to me a little bit

[00:37:39] about about how you go about producing your product. Do you use do you manufacture these yourself or do you have a partner or are you still you know working out various methodologies? So we're

[00:37:57] right now I'm doing two different methods. I don't have a solid single manufacturer so right now I'm either pending the customer they can provide me the apparel t-shirts or jersey or they can allow me I will acquire based on what they want and then I will take

[00:38:24] said apparel to a printing press right and go to that that entity with the design and in some cases a seamstress to do stitching if doing jerseys. Right right so you have a number of different partners that you work with to help pull together what's needed okay

[00:38:51] it's that sounds great so what's your vision and goal for this company I know it's to tell stories but and I know it you want to be focused you want to do this full time but

[00:39:01] what do you envision down the road like what is what does three years look like to you in five years? So I you know I'm a big proponent of thinking big right shoot for the moon even if you mesh

[00:39:16] you'll land among the stars sort of thinking so I envision in my goals to make this company to be able to compete with the big boys with the underarmors with the nikes however

[00:39:31] I am doing my best to keep manufacturing in the U.S. right keep manufacturing in the U.S. and to one day right growing up even today you see celebrities or athletes people wear

[00:39:50] let me back up you'll see people wearing wearing t-shirts and jerseys of sports players right Michael Jordan Kobe Bryant LeBron James etc well my my vision of kind of arriving or a good at least

[00:40:07] one barometer you know of success would be having these well known sports figures right NFL NHL NBA celebrities wearing my apparel of people that have died for our for our state right

[00:40:24] died in service for us so that's that's kind of one goal I have I want people to come to my company to to wear our apparel to show the true legends right there's nothing wrong

[00:40:40] with athletes I love sports but I think the true legends who've died for our for us deserve to be displayed right yeah yeah and and you know what a great what a great vision that is

[00:40:57] you know and and and even helping helping remind all of us I think of of the service of these people and what they've done for us and and kind of enriching us and and what you're

[00:41:13] talking about really is is is helping to to promote a bit of a cultural change in the way that we that we that we look at the world in the way that we celebrate heroes yeah I believe people also

[00:41:29] want options you know we're we're living in in a time where you can find out about a company pretty quick what they believe where who their investors are where they manufacture how they treat their

[00:41:41] employees and I think in this in this there's no better time to be an entrepreneur if you align if you want to align your values in a certain way and let it be known then I think you build

[00:41:54] it they will come right yeah so with that in mind I want to be I want to be a a place where people come to and they can know hey that's a company I'm proud to give my my money to I know what

[00:42:11] they're about I know why they exist I don't have to worry about about nefarious activity or being under the thumb of an oppressive an oppressive regime where manufacturing take place takes place yeah yeah yeah I agree with you I do I do believe people want options and

[00:42:34] I'm excited to see what you can do with this so if somebody is listening to this and they they like your mission and your vision you know what what do you need I mean what kind of help

[00:42:46] do you need because I think there are a lot of people that would love to help you and you may not even know all the answers to this yet but but what do you if you had a chance to pitch and you know

[00:42:57] for for help what would it be what what do you need oh boy just careful what you wish for like many entrepreneurs like there's a magazine rack of issues I could fill right um obviously

[00:43:13] funding is always an issue right I'm I'm bootstrapping this um I I don't want to blindly give up equity just for a quick fix right I'm not into the quick dopamine I'm long-term thinking but

[00:43:28] right now I need to perfect my process of manufacturing my process of bringing a product in an efficient way from manufacturing to online sales that those are some of my friction points

[00:43:44] now I'm blessed to have people close to me my girlfriend and her sister had to help with product design graphic design things like that but my my issues again I'm trying to perfect and refine my manufacturing and my online experience slash website for customers to have a

[00:44:08] the best experience possible so it sounds like some coaching mentoring even some smart money would be potentially yeah potentially so you know it's always kind of scary at this stage because you know there have been companies that have have failed because they they got too much business too

[00:44:31] soon before they could get their their manufacturing yeah running so I understand it's you know there's always a sense of urgency for entrepreneurs but the same time it's you know it sounds like you're building a company for the long run and and

[00:44:49] it sounds like you know partnerships coaches mentors people who can help you move this along or where you're at right now absolutely yeah so if they're you know if there was

[00:45:03] so what you you know if you had one question to ask an expert right now you know what would be that that one question hmm oh wow what would you do given given my my phase of business

[00:45:24] what would your focus and next step be okay that's that's a great if you were in my shoes yeah yeah and I can answer I think what I would say is I think it would be to surround myself with

[00:45:39] a few really smart successful people that can help guide me you know because they're going to be there are going to be a lot of questions along the way and I think that you know

[00:45:53] they're I used to ask entrepreneurs the question back when Oprah was you know Oprah had her show and getting on Oprah meant that your business was gonna be a success I used to say yeah who's

[00:46:06] your Oprah you know what's your Oprah and oh wow it's in my mind it's kind of you know can you figure out what's that one thing that's going to make all the difference and you know I think I think there's

[00:46:21] a lot of a lot of different ways that question can go but maybe something for you to think about as you go oh yeah yeah that's that's funny that's funny you bring that up because I

[00:46:34] I've been strategizing my you know my Oprah and different avenues for for exponential awareness right so that's that's interesting I have some ideas I'll run them by you yeah yeah we can certainly talk about that well Dan this has been a great conversation I'm looking forward to having

[00:46:54] you back on the impactor down the road when when you've when you've reached a lot of these goals and I'm looking forward to seeing seeing what you do again I think you've got a great story and

[00:47:11] one more time where can our listeners connect with you find you maybe even work with you on honoring a loved one in their lives yeah absolutely so you can reach me follow me on

[00:47:28] instagram at at verum legend ver um legend I have a website that's under construction but you can get on the newsletter and see all the other ways to reach out to me at verum legend.com

[00:47:43] also my email verum legend at protonmail.com Dan thank you for joining me and good luck with what you're with your with your business and and your vision for this company thank you so much

[00:48:01] it's been a pleasure I look forward to telling you more as I grow and there's no better place to learn about entrepreneurship best practices hearing inspirational stories than the impactor thank you for the plug and thank you for joining me very welcome

[00:48:21] if you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about entrepreneurship we would love it if you hit that subscribe button thank you so much for listening to this episode of in factor